


Take My Past, Take My Sense

by glow593



Series: Savour the Taste of Sugar [2]
Category: Batman (Movies - Nolan), Batman - All Media Types, Naruto
Genre: BAMF Haruno Sakura, Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, I have no idea where this is going, tags will come as the story progresses
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-21
Updated: 2020-08-12
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:21:08
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 13,761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24304330
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glow593/pseuds/glow593
Summary: The short story: Sakura ends up in a foreign world and has to survive.This is the longer version.
Relationships: Haruno Sakura/Joker (DCU)
Series: Savour the Taste of Sugar [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1812967
Comments: 69
Kudos: 79





	1. Into the Unknown

**Author's Note:**

> Title from Heal by Tom Odell.  
> i've been playing with this idea since watching the dark knight for the first time here in march. the story takes place in the batman world, set in batman begins just as bruce comes back to gotham.  
> hope you enjoy!

Sakura rolled and landed on her feet. The portal had spit her out in what appeared to be an alley somewhere. The surroundings where unfamiliar, and definitely not the forest she had been in moments prior. The buildings on either side of the alley were rundown and taller than what she was used to.

She, and the rest of her team, had been fighting a missing-nin from the land of Waves, who had stolen a forbidden scroll from a temple, when he opened the scroll and threw it at her. She blocked it, but as soon as it touched her she was sucked in.

She looked around, a — she assumed — homeless man, was staring at her with wide eyes, before blinking and running away. She raised an eyebrow, but understood why. It wasn't any day that small, pink-haired women fell out of walls after all. She felt calmer than she should have been. Further taking in her surroundings, she frowned. No marks on the wall to indicate a portal had been there just before. There was a dumpster on her right and the ground was littered with broken glass.

Her guard raised she slowly walked the same way the homeless man had run, while keeping ready for an attack. There was no telling where she had ended up and she needed to find her way back to Konoha. But to do that she first needed to find out exactly where she was.

The road the alley opened up to did not offer any more clues to the puzzle. But rather raised more questions. There were weird metal contraptions parked, on either side of the road. She jumped back as one of the contraptions sped past her, making a lot noise.

“What the hell?” she whispered to herself. Realising that she might be further from home than she had originally thought. She just hoped she hadn't ended up in a different universe, like Kaguya Ootsutsuki had been able to do.

The signs were not looking good for her, she thought, as she walked cautiously down the side of the road. If she was in another universe, it would be a real challenge to get home again. She could feel herself growing depressed at the thought. _If I am in another universe, what am I going to do?_ The negative thoughts kept coming, and were weighing her down. _No, no, I can't give up now! I have to focus on finding out where I am._ She shook of the negative train of thought and clenched her fists. Determination bolstering her.

She took in her surroundings looking for anything that could help her identify where she was. Street signs weren't much help, but she took note of them just in case she needed to find her way back to where she came out. There were no identifying markers beside them, and on the horizon and around her buildings reached towards the sky. Higher than she had ever imagined it would be possible to build. The buildings on the horizon were shining in the sun. High beams ran overhead, and on them a train passed. She had never imagined that was even possible!

“I'm very far from home,” she whispered to herself. Reality crashing down upon her. She was pretty certain that she was nowhere near the Elemental Nations, and most likely in a different universe. As she had no hopes of recognizing anything in her surroundings, her best bet of getting information was finding someone willing to answer some questions. Luckily she was able to read the street signs, so the chances of being able to speak the language were high, she thought, or rather hoped.

She had been wandering the streets for a while looking for someone willing to talk, but everyone she approached looked away or down. The place she had been spit out in was rundown, and the people looked downtrodden. It was obvious that wherever she had been spit out, she was in the poorer part of town, if the buildings on the horisont was anything to judge by. It made her angry that people would build something like those buildings, but leave so many people in this state.

She heard the man approach her before she saw him. The crunch of glass under boots of someone trying to be stealthy and failing. Her shoulders relaxed, assuming the position of someone who wasn’t prepared for a fight, even though her guard was raised and she was itching to hit something. The day’s frustration ready to be taken out on the unfortunate someone that had decided to go after her.

Her looks came to her advantage in this situation as she was always underestimated. Long pink hair in a braid reaching her lower back and petite stature, coupled with big green eyes, gave her a look of innocence. Even though she was already 20 and had been training to kill ever since she could walk. Even then when they recognized her as the Fifth Hokage’s apprentice, she was underestimated. It got on her nerves, but she recognized the advantages in it. And their faces were always brilliant when she broke the ground under them with a single punch. She hoped, that she would be underestimated now as well.

Sakura didn’t know anything about these people’s abilities or how well they fought. She had no basis for comparison to her own universe. She knew she could hold her own in a fight in her own universe and prayed that it carried over. But if his stealth was anything to judge by, he couldn’t be that good.

The man was finally close enough that she felt the press of a blade on her back.

“Now, why don’t you-” she didn’t let him finish his sentence before she struck. It was obvious that he was trying to rob her, and she had the advantage of surprise on her side. Twirling around quicker than the untrained eye could follow, she grabbed his wrist, twisting it and making him drop the knife. She bent his arm up and forward, making him turn around, and pressed his arm against his back.

He yelled in pain and surprise, and his struggles to free himself made it obvious that he had no combat training. A civilian. She felt slightly bad about twisting his arm then, but it passed quickly as he HAD been trying to mug her.

Sakura pushed his arm higher. His struggles stopped as he gave a pained groan. Even with all the noise his struggles had been making, no one came to his rescue, curiously enough. The attitude she had earlier observed of ignoring what wasn’t your business, came to her advantage.

“Please! Let me go! I’m sorry!” he yelled to her amusement. His accent was not one she had heard before.

“You just tried to rob me,” Sakura said, “You’re going to answer some questions for me, and then I’ll let you go.”

“Yes! Anything!” she didn’t think that the pain of a twisted arm was enough to make someone react like he did, but then again he WAS a civilian. Most likely he was unused to pain. So that’s at least one thing that carried over from her universe to this one.

“Where are we?”

“You don’t know whe- OW, ow okay, okay I get it! We’re in the Narrows!” She had put extra pressure on his arm.

“The Narrows is the name of this city? What’s the country called?”

“No? The Narrows is this neighbourhood. The city is called Gotham. It’s in America. How can you not know-” he yelped as she put pressure on him again. She didn’t need to explain what had happened to her to him, as too much information in the wrong hands could be dangerous. Also she was starting to grow more agitated. It was nice finally get some answers, but the more she learned the less she knew. She was definitely in another universe. She had never heard of “America” or “Gotham” before. A city with this tall buildings would be well known, she figured.

“OW, OW, stop doing that!” Sakura came back to reality from her thoughts. She had unknowingly been putting more and more pressure on the man’s arm, and she was on the verge of dislocating his shoulder.

“Oh.” She let go of his arm and pushed him away in the same movement. The man stumbled away from her before straightening, looking back at her and then running away, with a mumbled “Bitch” under his breath. Sakura heard him just fine and her eyebrow twitched in annoyance. He was the one trying to rob her! She shook her head. Civilians.

Speaking of civilians; she had seen no sign at all that shinobi existed at all during the day. There was no one running across rooftops, the clothes everyone wore were impractical for fighting, though this of course could just mean they were comfortable in their abilities. But she had not been able to sense a single person with a developed chakra pool, despite being a pretty okay sensor. Everyone she had come across or were within her sensor limit, had the chakra pool of a civilian. Also she was wearing her hitai-ate and yet a civilian had tried to rob her? Of course he obviously had not recognized the symbol and maybe shinobi here did not wear hitai-ate. But she had not been trying to hide her chakra signature either.

She was getting nowhere with her thoughts, as tired as she was. At least she knew where she was now. Then she could work on getting home. But to do that she first had to survive in this universe. First order of business was to acquire some local currency for food and lodgings.

Luckily she was on a mission when it happened. Sakura’s pouches were fully stocked with weapons and materials she would need to survive. Besides her kunai and shuriken, she had her tantou, soldier pills, some rations, fully stocked medical supplies, a few poisons and antidotes, a gas mask that could filtre out poisons, and a storage scroll with her bed roll, personal hygiene products, and some changes of clothes.

All in all it could be worse she supposed, trying to look on the positive side of things.


	2. Gaining New Footing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sakura gains a foothold in the new world she has found herself in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i am not american and have a hard time wrapping my head around their money lol. this includes how much cash people carry around and the price of hotelrooms, so please if it's totally unrealistic just ignore it.  
> it's also been quite a while since i read naruto. i haven't read any of the material that came after the original manga, and of the anime have only seen the orignal and shippuden. luckily the internet exists.  
> just some notes: this takes place when sakura is around 20, so 3-4 years or so after the war. canon happened as it did, but her and sasuke never got together as a couple, and sakura has grown out of her feelings for him.

It was starting to get dark. Sakura didn’t know what to do. All her positive courage had left her as evening fell and she was no closer to figuring out a way to gain local currency in a way that wasn’t against her morals. If she couldn’t find money, she wouldn’t find a place to stay or fresh food. She didn’t want to use her rations needlessly, but it was looking like she going to have to.

As her hunger and exhaustion bore down on her, she could feel how she was starting to care less. It was looking like she was going to have to pickpocket someone. Not like she hadn’t stolen before, but that had always been on missions. She felt like it was different to take from someone without getting paid to do it. Even though that made no sense, now that she was thinking further on it. What difference did it make if she was paid to do it or not? She was hungry, angry, and tired. It had been a very long day between fighting while on a mission, being thrown into another world, and then wandering around all day looking for answers. She just wanted to rest.

Decided, she started looking for victims. It did dawn on her that she was doing exactly what that man had tried to do to her, but it wasn’t like she would make them aware she was robbing them. Just slip it out of their pockets. Sakura sighed. It seriously sounded bad to her, but what choice did she have? Probably others, but she couldn’t see them.

The part of the city she had come out in, the Narrows as that man had called it, was poor. She could guess that much from the rundown buildings and the way that the people here were dressed. Not a good place to find a victim to pickpocket. They would be more aware of their surroundings, used to people trying to rob them, and the yield would not be worth it. Also she felt better taking from someone that had a surplus and didn’t need the money as much as people here did.

She would have to find a richer district. And she would bet that that could be found where the tall, shiny, buildings were.

To get a better sense of how to get there, she decided to take to the rooftops. She still hadn’t seen anyone go over the roofs, but she was going to sacrifice anonymity for speed. As much anonymity as a pink-haired woman could have anyway. She went into an alley, but instead of running up the wall, something she felt would be too obvious, she climbed up one of the many fire escapes.

Once she was up on the roof and looked around, she realized how BIG the city she had come out in was, and thanked her lucky stars that she had a good memory and sense of direction to find her way back. She figured it would be her best bet to stick as close as possible to where she had come out, in case something happened.

The city was spread out on several islands connected by bridges. She started heading for the one leading to the island with the biggest buildings. Jumping across the roofs she made it to the bridge in no time. Just before she got to the outermost building she located another alley and jumped down, using chakra to soften the landing from the long fall. Brushing off her clothes to ground herself, she thought about her next step. She stuck out a lot in a crowd, not really something conducive to pickpocketing. Not to speak of the fact that she had noticed how differently she was dressed. She would have to use a henge. This was a bit of a risk, even though she was good at the Jutsu, if any of the people were ninja they could possibly see through it. Not something she wanted to happen as nothing screamed up-to-something more than walked around with a henge. But she would have to do it to not be noticed.

Just as she was about to form the hand signs for the Jutsu she realized that she didn’t actually know what kind of clothes were passable to blend in with among the rich crowd. She did not think that what was passable back home could be used here, based on the way people around her were dressed. She could just go with what she had seen them wearing, but that might stick out too. She would have to go into the district first to scope out the place.

That decided, she used a henge on her hair to make it an ordinary brown color that she had seen on a lot of people since coming out of the portal. Better safe than sorry.

Walking out of the alley, she confidently strode up to the bridge and crossed it. People had a tendency to not really question those that acted like they belonged and she was betting that was a thing across most universes. It worked, though people did give her second glances. She frowned. She would have to do something about her clothes as soon as possible.

As she came into the district proper, she couldn’t help but be in awe of the constructions around her. Glass and metal rose towards the sky, looming over her. She had never seen anything like it. She was used to buildings of tree or stone, not this. She had heard that Amegakure was built similarly, but she had never personally been there. It was an amazing feat of construction work, but she couldn’t help but notice how easy it would be to take down the buildings with a few well placed explosive tags.

She started looking at the way people were dressed instead of looking at the buildings. If she had to guess she would say she was in some kind of business district and that people were on their way home for the day. People were walking quickly, looking down on small glowing squares in their hands, or talking into the same squares. It was obviously some kind of mobile phone, even though they looked vastly different from the ones in her universe. This universe seemed to be more technologically advanced than her own. 

Most of the women were dressed in pencil skirts and blouses, that wasn’t too dissimilar to what she had seen businesspeople wear back home. She slipped through people easily until she found a suitable place to use the henge.

A good thing about the people’s total distraction in this universe was that no one really saw her slip away into another alley, and then a completely different person slip back into the crowd. Instead of her usual looks she was now a brown-eyed, brown-haired woman with shoulder-length hair, dressed in a navy blue skirt and cream blouse. Without a mirror handy she used a window instead to assess her looks.  _ Like any other person on this street _ , she thought. People gave her nary a glance. This merely helped cement her theory that there were probably not ninja here. It also made them easy targets.

A man who was talking angrily into his phone and as she passed she slid her hand into the pocket she had noticed had a heavier weight in it than the others. The man did not even look at her, too caught up in his argument, and she quickly slid her ill-gotten gains into her kunai pouch. She continued in this fashion with six more people, until she found a place to check how much she had gotten and to get rid of the wallets, needing only the cash.

She opened the first wallet she fished out of her kunai pouch, and couldn’t help fishing out the first little plastic card she found in it. It seemed to be a credit card, much similar to those she was used to. She had no use for that, as she did not know exactly how money withdrawal worked in this world, and it would be too risky to use it without the proper intel. Throwing the credit card in the bin she looked at the next one. It was something called a “driver’s license”. There was a picture of the person she had stolen it from and their name and some other information about them. It made her feel bad. Making them a person instead of another face in the crowd, so she quickly tossed that too.

She took out the bills in the wallet, again similar to her own, except she had no idea what they were worth. On the bills it said that the currency was called dollars. Tossing all the wallets and cards in the trash and counting up her total from them, she had 1.451 dollars. It didn’t seem like a lot to her. But then again she didn’t know if this was a lot or not very much, but she just hoped it was enough to last her at least a few days, until she had gotten a better grasp on her situation. She didn’t want to make pickpocketing a habit.

Now that the first step was complete she needed to move on to the second: food. She let go of the henge, in case someone HAD noticed her after all, even though she was confident in her skill and choice of targets. Wandering along the street she came across a stand that sold newspapers and decided it was the perfect time for some information gathering.

“Excuse me, how much for your 5 best selling newspapers?” she asked, politely.

“That’ll be 5 dollars, ma’am.”

Sakura found the appropriate amount among her newfound cash, surprised by how little it was, though it gave her a better sense of how much she had. Which was most likely more than enough to last her quite some days if she was wise about her spending habits.

She thanked him and exchanged the cash for information about the new place she had found herself in. She folded the newspapers and put them in the pouch on her hip. She would study them later when she had found a place to stay for the night. She could feel herself flagging. She needed to find some food quickly and somewhere to sleep.

It didn’t take her long to find something to eat, which did help with giving her some more energy. She couldn’t remember her last proper meal prior to this. The food was unfamiliar but tasted good. It was something called falafel.

She returned to the Narrows, thinking it would make her funds last longer and because she wanted to be close to where she came out. She went back to the area where she had first come out and found a hotel nearby.

It looked as rundown as the rest of the buildings and wasn’t any better inside. But it was cheap, she thought, or at least assumed.

It turned out that she was right it was cheap. It cost her 30 dollars per night, and she was starting to get a better sense of what money was worth here. The man at the counter had stared and stared at her when she asked for a room for a week, before snapping out of it and naming the price. She had asked for a week just to be safe, hopefully, she would not be here for that long but there was really no telling how long it would take for her to find a way back.

The room lived up to the price. That is to say, run-down, suspicious stains on the carpet, and a worse bathroom, but it would have to do. She really couldn’t be picky in her situation and hopefully she wasn’t going to be staying here long.

Placing a genjutsu trap on the door that would alert her should anyone try and enter while she was asleep, she unpacked her bedroll and placed it on the bed. It was better than sleeping directly on it. It was also better than sleeping on the street. She missed her comfortable bed in her apartment, which led to thoughts of her friends. She already missed them. She tried not to think about it too much. Hoping she would see them again soon.

It had been a very long day, so Sakura decided to take a shower. At least there was functioning hot water, although it took a while before it came out. After showering she laid down. She needed sleep desperately. She had lost count a while ago of how many hours it had been since she last slept. She could look at the newspapers tomorrow. She very much doubted she would notice the important details with the state she was in.

As she was falling asleep the previous few days ran through her head.

_ The mission was supposed to be an easy one; kill a B-rank missing-nin from Wave that had raided a temple near the border of the land of Fire. Two chuunin, a jounin and herself — a jounin medic-nin — had been assigned it. Sakura only knew her teammates in passing, having never really interacted with them before, but they had been chosen based on their skills’ compatibility with the missing-nin’s. As a medic-nin she was used to being put on different teams, and working with all kinds of people. It didn’t really worry her. _

_ The mission started off without a hitch — they reached the temple and talked to the monks there, that mentioned that the nin had stolen a forbidden scroll. It didn’t take long to track down the missing-nin, with one of the chuunins being an Inuzuka. It hadn’t rained since the raid on the temple and he apparently was not very good at covering his tracks. _

_ When they caught up to him, they managed to catch him by surprise, but unfortunately he dodged the senbon heading for him. Working alone had left him with little opportunity to sleep and it showed clearly in his fighting. _

_ After he had avoided their attack he tried to flee, but he didn’t get the chance to with Sakura breaking the ground under his feet. Then the fight was on. _

_ The missing-nin fought desperately but was quickly backed into a corner. This is when Sakura’s day took a turn for the worse. He reached into his pouch and she prepared for a kunai to come flying her way when he took out the scroll that had been stolen, unrolled it, and threw it at her. _

_ The monks at the temple had said that no one had ever been able to decipher the scroll nor did anything happen when it was touched or opened. This is why she was not worried when it came flying at her and she blocked it with her forearm. Just as it touched her it started glowing, and with a blinding light she was sucked in. _

She had no idea what had happened to her teammates after that. There was no doubt of their victory in her head, but she hoped they had captured the missing-nin alive so he could be taken back to Konoha for interrogation. Hopefully they could get out of him what he had done with the scroll and were working on a way to get her back.

There was no use dwelling on it for now, and with that thought she fell asleep.


	3. A Meeting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sakura gathers information, gets familiar with Gotham, and runs into some people.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i have such a hard time imagening the joker in anything else but that iconic purple suit he wears in the movie, but unfortunately i don't think he got it until between the bank robbery and the meeting with the mob bosses, so i had to make up something  
> enjoy!

Sakura woke at dawn the next morning, accustomed to waking early for hospital shifts or missions. The pale light filtering in through the dirty window looked different than she was used to, and she remembered exactly where she was and what had happened. _This suuucks,_ she thought sourly.

On the bright side, she felt well rested and had gotten a decent amount of sleep, used to functioning on much fewer hours than what she got. It felt like a luxury in her misfortune. _The only luxury_. There was no use in feeling down about it though, and to stop the negative thoughts, she needed something to focus her mind on.

After getting ready for the day, she picked out the newspapers from her pouch, sat down, and got ready to gather some information.

Her stomach chose this moment to protest, so she found a protein bar in her pack and sat back down. Now she was ready.

 **_Billionaire Bruce Wayne Returns to Gotham_ **, the first newspaper’s — Gotham Gazette — front page read. She had no idea who that was of course. After reading the article, she decided that while knowing who the important and influential people were was important if you wanted to play politics, it could not really help in her current situation. She wanted to do this as quietly as possible, creating as few ripples in this universe as she could before she returned to her own. There was no telling what the implications of her presence were, and she wanted to avoid making more of them if it at all possible.

The article did tell her some interesting things about the city she found herself in. Apparently the city had been experiencing some major problems with crime, especially organized crime, after an economic crash. There was a high unemployment rate and people were desperate.

According to the article, things were getting better again, with the police commissioner and district attorney cleaning up the streets. However, this didn’t really fit with the reality she had experienced in the Narrows just the day before. Of course, she hadn’t been here long and didn’t know anything about the situation with the organized crime, but from what she had seen it seemed almost like the people of the Narrows had been forgotten.

Musing on this she read the rest of the newspapers, and it only reinforced her original thoughts. The papers were trying to make things seem better than they really were. Probably at the behest of the rich and powerful if this world was anything like her own. A frown graced her face. No matter where you were the rich and powerful kept stomping on the ordinary person. It bothered her, but it was none of her business. She would be gone from this world soon enough, and even though the war had been won almost 4 years ago, there was still plenty of trouble in her own.

Sakura didn’t have the time nor energy to make this world’s problems her own. She wasn’t Naruto after all. The thought of Naruto pained her. She wanted to be as optimistic as him, really she did, but she had always been more of a realist. And things were looking pretty bleak.

She missed him, and the way he could always cheer everyone up no matter what was wrong.

She missed her other friends a lot too. Things would have been easier had she not been stuck here alone. But she was alone and it was no use dwelling on things that would never happen. And she was glad that they weren’t here. Glad that they didn’t have to experience this. _It will make quite some story when I get back_ , she thought. The niggling thought of IF she got back was still there, but she had more practice shutting it down. And things were looking better than they had yesterday. She had money, she had a roof over her head for the week, and she had some information on the world she found herself in.

The information she had gathered only cemented one thing for her. Ninja did not exist in this world. There was no mention of people with abilities even slightly similar to what she knew. This would make finding a way to travel between dimensions harder, and then when she did find a way to do it, she would have to find the right one too…. It seemed like an insurmountable task now that she thought further on it, but giving up would get her nowhere. She would climb that mountain when she came to it. One step at a time.

The first step was to figure out a plan of attack. She had money, and basic necessities down, so that was one thing she didn’t have to worry about right this moment. The next thing she would have to do would be to familiarize herself with the city. She should go back to the place she had come out and examine it for any traces again, even though she had already done that.

She could figure out the following steps after that, she told herself, as to not come face to face with the thought that she had no idea what the following steps would even be.

“Yosh!” she said, pumping her clenched fists. Now that had somewhat of a plan in place she felt much better, and like she could take on the world. 

She was also starting to itch to get out of this room from having sat still here this long. Moving around and doing something would also help her take her mind off of her friends. If she dwelled on them too long she would fall into a depressive spiral with how much she missed them.

Leaving the room and locking the door behind her, her genjutsu trap still active, she contemplated the best plan of attack for the day and how to explore the city. She should start with checking out the alley she came out in, since it was close, and then she could explore the city. The rooftops would be a speedier way to get a good overview, but now that she was pretty sure that ninja didn’t exist, she wasn’t sure she would want to risk it. Maybe a genjutsu? But she didn’t know that many and it would be difficult to hold the one that made her blend in with her surroundings for the whole day, and she didn’t want to waste her chakra needlessly. She couldn’t know when she would need it.

Walking out into the street she looked up, and her eye caught the train running overhead on steel-beams. Maybe just maybe she was lucky and it carried passengers? It was worth a try, and if not she could always jump on the roof of one of the passing trains and let it carry her around the city. It would save time and energy AND give her a good view of the city, considering how high up the trains were.

Arriving at the alley, it looked exactly like it had the day before, that is to say, with no sign that interdimensional travel had taken place here the day before. Luckily, sight was not the only sense she had. Jutsu left chakra traces and she was pretty decent at sensing them. Moving to the spot where she had come out, she placed her hand on the wall and closed her eyes.

With one of her primary senses closed off, it was much easier to focus on what she could sense. There were large amounts of chakra embedded in the wall. A small hope entered her that all she had to do was get the chakra to activate and she could get home! Cautiously, she tried prodding the chakra with her own, but nothing happened. She tried again this time expelling a larger amount of chakra. The chakra in the wall reacted to her own, as water being moved by throwing a rock in it, but other than that, nothing happened. She tried pushing more into it but still nothing concrete. It seemed like the chakra in the wall, really just was leftover from the initial jutsu and not something she could reactivate.

Sakura hung her head, bangs shadowing her face. _Well, it was worth a try_ , she thought, a bit exhausted from expelling so much chakra. Drawing in a deep breath, she suppressed the tears of frustration that were filling her eyes. She was not going to cry! Taking a few moments to breathe deeply, she got her emotions under control. She wasn’t ashamed of crying but feared that if she started all her frustrations would translate to tears and she wouldn’t be able to stop again. That was not how she wanted to spend the day. 

Deciding that she would just need to power through, she moved away from the wall. 

Being on the move and observing her surroundings closely would hopefully help keep her mind occupied. She moved quickly from the alley, twisting around people and the weird moving metal contraptions. It was pretty clear where they were allowed to move, so it was easy to avoid them.

Moving through the throngs of people, she looked up at the sky, at the train tracks, trying to find a station where she could get on. She spotted a train stopping under a roof covering the tracks.

Moving towards it she mused further on her situation. She just couldn’t help it. It would be best if she took the rooftops as little as possible. There was no need to create unnecessary attention, and she wanted to stand out as little as possible. If she was going to be here for a long time, she would also need some way to maintain her abilities. Muscles could be stimulated with chakra she knew and knew how to do from her work at the hospital. It was mainly used on people in comas, so they would have a shorter recuperation period, but she could use it, if it came to it, to maintain her strength without having to train. She didn’t think she would be able to find a place suitable for training here, not to mention that she didn’t want to risk it. Being exhausted after training would leave her vulnerable and it would reveal her skills to anyone happening upon her.

Now maintaining her other skills would be a _bit_ more difficult. An understatement. She didn’t want to “waste” chakra, as she never knew when she would need it, but keeping her skills sharp would be very important. She could do some chakra control exercises when she was in her room that wouldn’t require tools, but that was all she could think of.

Her thoughts were cut off when she arrived at her destination. Stairs led up to a platform, with people coming and going. She was happy that the train did carry passengers.

Sakura walked up the stairs, hoping that there was some kind of time schedule for the train’s arrivals somewhere on the platform.

She felt lucky to discover that there were, even though maybe it was a given. Quickly memorizing the schedule, she also figured out the ticket system. It was fairly straight forward, and there was no reason to waste her money and time on getting a fine. She decided to take the train to the center of the train-system. Somewhere called _Wayne Tower_ according to the schedule. All the trains met there, so it would be ideal for a center for her observations of the city.

Getting a ticket and getting on the train, she was pretty excited — despite the situation — to explore somewhere new. Maybe treating this as a mission to a new place was the way to go? She felt more at peace with everything when considering it like that. 

The train left the station and Sakura kept her eyes peeled for everything. The train itself was in poor shape, old and often used, without proper upkeep. The windows were grimy and the seats dirty. Outside the city was much like the train, dirty, and not being cared for. But as the train traveled further into the heart of the city that changed. The buildings’ windows were shiny and the difference in wealth obvious. It still made her angry that such unfairness was present, in a city that obviously had so much.

The train arrived at the final station, and she got off. People here gave her more second glances than the people in the Narrows. She was an obvious outsider and people treated her as such. She was used to the second glances, pink hair did ensure that.

Sakura didn’t feel that there was a need to use a henge, as she wasn’t going to do much more than explore. 

Walking down street after street she got a better feel for this city and universe she had found herself in. She also managed to snag a map of the city probably meant for tourists.

When satisfied with her internal map of that area filled out, she got back on a different train and took it to a different area of the city. She repeated the process a few times before getting some food for lunch from a street vendor.

Then Sakura was back to exploring. She didn’t really find anything useful to her quest of getting home but was in constant wonder with how different this city was compared to what she was used to. She was in one of the poorer areas of Gotham when she stumbled across something that was probably not meant to be seen. Concealing herself as well as she could without using jutsu, which was very well, she silently crept forward to better observe what was happening.

Men were transporting boxes from an open back door to a white one of those metal contraptions, however, this one was bigger than most of the ones she had seen. She overheard one of the men refer to it as a “van”. 

She didn’t know what was in the boxes, but it didn’t take a genius to figure out that they were doing or handling something illegal. It was in their movements, the constant looking over shoulders and the tense postures.

The men were tough-looking with well-muscled arms and tattoos covering them. Gruff-looking faces and severe expressions. The kind that was often slow in a fight but packed a punch. They were carrying weird-looking metal things she had never seen the like of before, but from the way they were handling them, they were obviously weapons. What kind, she had no way of knowing. Some of the men were going back and forth with the boxes filled with who-knows-what and others were standing around with the weapons raised guarding them.

That’s when she noticed him. She didn’t know why she hadn’t noticed him earlier, there was an aura surrounding him that was unmistakable. Bloodlust. And it was heavy in the air. She was already getting complacent, with the lack of oppositions she had met so far.

He had faded green hair that could use a wash, hanging around his head reaching his shoulders, and was clad in business attire. But not like the ones she had seen in the rich district. It was similar, but his stood out by color choices. Everyone else had been clad in grey or black, but his suit was a warm lilac color. It was dirty and could use a wash too. He wore a patterned dress shirt and tie.

That was not what drew her eyes though. It was his face. An annoyed expression covering it, as he barked out orders at the men. Scars stretched from the corners of his mouth, poorly healed, and from something painful. The medic in her itched to have fixed it, but it was too late now that they were already healed. He was painted like a clown with white skin, red lips and scars, and black surrounding his eyes.

Deep piercing black eyes that were looking straight into hers.

“Now wha _t_ do we have here?”


	4. Weird People

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A strange meeting quickly turns sour.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the ending scene of this chapter was actually one of the first scenes i wrote for this story. i was kinda nervous it might not fit in when i got far enough in the story for it, but it didn't take much fiddling around to get it to fit. hopefully the same will be the case for the other scenes i already have written, or else they'll get uploaded as one shots.  
> so yeah a continuation of the joker and sakura's first meeting! and we get the joker's pov too! there'll be... not a lot, but we'll get the pov of some different characters through out the story  
> hope you enjoy

She was surprised he had even noticed her. She didn’t think she had made any sounds and these people didn’t really strike her as super observant, but somehow he had.  _ This is going to be a problem _ , she thought. She could just feel it deep in her bones.

He was obviously the leader of the bunch despite the clown makeup.

There was nothing to do. He had seen her, and while she could just run up the wall, she didn’t want to reveal her abilities without reason. She decided to come out of her hiding place. 

Slowly walking out, taking in the alert positions the men had found themselves in after the surprise had passed, she took in her surroundings, planning an escape route in case things turned sour. She didn’t want to hurt anyone unnecessarily, but would do so if it came to a fight. Not that she would have trouble against this bunch if their looks were an indication of skill, but she knew that looks could often be deceiving. And there were the strange weapons to take into account. She didn’t know what they did, but they didn’t seem to have any sharp edges, so they were probably not like kunai. But a weapon didn’t need an edge to do damage.

Her focus shifted back to the leader. The clown. Why anyone would want to be dressed like that she had no idea, but then again, she had seen weirder things. Zetsu, for one.

The red paint around his mouth drew her eyes to the horrific scars, which was most likely on purpose. Most people would probably be frightened by them, but she wasn’t. Even though there was something menacing about him. All the men seemed scared of him too.

Then he spoke again: “Well, are you not gonna introduce yourself, sweet cheeks?”. The nickname annoyed her. Sakura stayed silent, not wanting to give him anything to use against her. While he was speaking she had placed herself with her back to the wall, yet still some space between her and it, in case she needed to  _ move _ , and had all of them in her sight, so they couldn’t sneak up on her. He seemed to notice this. “Ah, aren’t you a smart one?” he paused, tilting his head and licking his lips, reminding her of Orochimaru, “So,” he popped his lips around the word and took a few steps closer to her, “what are you doing, interrupting our little private party here?”

Everything about him was making her instincts sing. He was dangerous although his appearance didn’t express that. Yet, he hit all her nerves too. The nickname, the arrogance embedded in his actions, the oddly graceful ease with which he moved, the carefully veiled violence implied in his words. It wouldn’t take much from him to make her lose her temper. He was just that kind of person, that got on your nerves, most likely an act he employed on purpose. This was dangerous. The last thing she needed was losing her temper, in this dangerous situation and unfamiliar place. 

She stood her ground, irrationally feeling like she had to prove something to him. Not moving from her spot, as he carefully, slowly, and with calculated steps came closer to her.

“The mysterious, silent type, huh?” he asked rhetorically, seeming to realize that she had no intention of answering him. That was a new one. She had never been described as mysterious or silent before. The two adjectives being completely opposite of her usual self, but this place wasn’t one where she could let her guard down and be herself. “Hmm…” As if he could read her thoughts, he stopped moving. “No, I don’t think you are.” With a sudden aggressive explosion of movement, he was in front of her, having pulled a knife from somewhere. She didn’t feel frightened exactly, but she was on edge, nervous about what he would do next, although she had no doubt that she could take him. The men watching the interaction carefully, with frightened faces, were pushed to the back of her mind, forgotten.

He waved the knife around carelessly, but with an ease that spoke of experience, moving close enough to her that they were almost face to face. “Is it the scars?” he asked, still not expecting or really needing an answer to keep going. “Wanna know how I got them?” He reached out for her.

“Right…” she said skeptically, annoyed and  _ done _ with him. Then without warning, she grabbed the forearm of the hand holding the knife and twisted, hard. There was a pop as his shoulder dislocated, she let go and kicked him gently — for her — in the gut to push him away from her. Of course gently for her, did not match the general understanding of the word. This all happened in a second. He stumbled back, hitting the wall behind him with an “oof” and clutched at his shoulder. 

“HA. HA. HA.” loud obnoxious laughter filled the air coming from the clown, his dislocated arm hanging loosely by his side. His forgotten henchmen, having raised their weapons as she kicked him away, looked confused at each other, unsure whether to attack or not. She was confused about his laughter too, and was as thus caught off guard by him.

Much faster than she had expected from a civilian in pain to, he suddenly whipped out a weapon similar to the ones his henchmen were carrying, and there sounded a loud BANG, pain immediately blossoming from her thigh.

It fucking hurt!

She bent forward, crumpling in on herself, and stumbled back half a step before catching herself. A projectile had left the weapon and gone straight through her thigh, hitting the femoral artery in the process. Blood splattered on the ground, running down her thigh. She couldn’t put her weight on her leg.

She would bleed out in less than two minutes if she did not stop it. Luckily for her, she was one of the best medical shinobi alive and could easily fix it. Or well, she could if the situation wasn’t so dire.

Sakura cursed her inattentiveness.  _ At least now I know what those weapons do _ , she thought sarcastically as she jumped back, one gloved hand automatically going to her thigh covered in the green glow of medical chakra to stop the bleeding. Making sure that it was completely healed would have to come later. She didn’t have the concentration to focus on her injury and how to stay alive at the same time. Pain was clouding her mind quickly. 

Landing from her jump, she had her back pressed against the wall and her weight on her left leg. Removing her hand from her thigh, and then shifting, testing her leg, and moving so her weight was evenly balanced, even though it  _ hurt _ . 

Her eyes shifted from the clown to his henchmen — remembering that they were there — and back again, judging him to be the bigger threat even though there were more of them.  _ Those weapons are going to be a problem _ . She was worried and needed to get out of here  _ now _ . He wasn’t clutching his arm anymore, even though it should still have hurt a lot, the weapon held loosely in his good hand, pointed at her, unwavering.

“Hmm..?” an interested sound coming from the clown. His dark eyes focused on where her injury had been. Further proof of her theory that shinobi didn’t exist in this world if her healing surprised him. Sakura cursed herself silently. The last thing she needed was for this person to be interested in her. He was obviously dangerous. More dangerous than the average citizen of this world, and he was good with weapons. It was obvious from the way he handled the knife earlier, with ease and familiarity, and how fast he had been to pull out and aim the weapon that shot the projectile. She had no doubt that the projectile hit her right where he had intended for it to. Intending to cause the most suffering while she bled out and was unable to flee. Not to mention that he was seemingly unbothered by the pain of a dislocated shoulder.

She needed to leave. Speed would be essential, as she had no way of avoiding the projectiles, she would have to move fast enough, that he didn’t have time to react and fire off another round.

Keeping an eye on the henchmen out of the corner of her eye, she had most of her attention focused on the dangerous man in front of her. One of the henchmen shifted, making the clown’s attention shift just the slightest bit, and she took her chance to run.

Aided by chakra she jumped as high in the air as she could, flipping and landing with her feet on the wall, sticking to it, and then sprinting as fast as she could up the side of the tall building. Her gait was even, but every step hurt. She hadn’t healed the injury completely, merely stopped the bleeding. It could wait until she got back to her hotel room.

Coming unto the roof she continued down it, jumping to the next building.  _ Screw subtlety _ , she needed to get out of there as fast as possible.

She regretted not wearing a henge for exploring the city, now this man knew what she really looked like if he wanted to track her down. Granted it was a big city and they were a bit away from her home base, but there was something about him, that made her doubt her safety.

People in this city — and world — were weird.

\----

The Joker laughed. His arm hurt, but pain wasn’t anything new. It was only a dislocated shoulder. Easy to take care of. But what an interesting person! He was glad he hadn’t shot her in the head, with what had been revealed.

When he first found someone spying on his men while they were moving the weapons, he didn’t expect much. Sure, she was well hidden, but several people could do that and he saw everything. Then it was revealed that it was a small slip of a pink-haired woman with the clearest green eyes. She was dressed strangely — a red Chinese style dress over black tight shorts, gloves, elbow, and knee protectors, with a bandage and pouch on her right thigh, and a weird belt holding another pouch to her back, not to mention the strange headband she had in her hair — and had a purple tattoo on her forehead.

He was a bit intrigued by the fashion and color choices of this person, but she would still have to die. She was suspicious of them, that much was clear from her hiding and spying, and that couldn’t be allowed. He had  _ plans  _ in the making that couldn’t be revealed yet. Then she made the  _ bad _ decision of attacking him. Even more reason to kill her. He couldn’t let an attack on his person go unpunished. He had an image to uphold after all. 

So, he shot her, making sure to get the femoral artery. She would bleed out quickly, but slow enough that he could ask why she was spying. And it was painful.

But then! Then she healed the injury in a moment, leaving no sign of it having been there! The Joker was intrigued. Such an ability was rare and coupled with her strength and the way she moved so quickly. Not to mention the fact that she was smart, and situationally aware, placing herself in the optimum position to keep him and his henchmen in her line of sight, and away from her back. She was an asset. One he wanted to acquire, or at least inquire about. She could aid his plans, and if she was against him, then… Well, then he would need to make her shift sides or take her out.

Then as soon as his attention shifted just a bit elsewhere she disappeared! The way she ran up the side of the building — a vertical wall — was definitely _ special _ and if he could  _ learn that _ …! Well, even if he couldn’t, someone with abilities like that could be useful for getting into places they shouldn’t be.

Turning from his musings back to his henchmen that were still standing around looking confused, he barked at them: “Well? Are those boxes gonna move themselves?”

A chorus of “Sorry, Boss!” rose up and they all got back to work. His hand went to his bad shoulder clutching it, making pain shoot from it. It made him feel alive! Pain was his choice of drug. Nothing could compare to the rush it would give him.

Waving over a guy who he knew had some idea of first aid, it didn’t take long until his arm was back in place, but it would take some time for the pain to disappear and stop hindering his movements. This didn’t matter though. He could work around it.

\---

Sakura made it back to her hotel room in record time. She took a bit of a convoluted route to get there, just to make sure she wasn’t followed. As soon as she was sure the man wasn’t following her, she made a beeline for her room, jumping down from the roof and scaring some pedestrians, but that didn’t matter. The pain from her thigh was clouding her thoughts and she needed to heal it now. There was a risk that the bone had been damaged and fragmented. Not to mention that her patch-job of stopping the bleeding wouldn’t hold forever. Especially with all the weight, she had been putting on her leg and the movement she had been forcing it through in her escape. She could have numbed it with chakra but didn’t want to risk doing something to open it again, or damaging it further with a careless movement because she couldn’t feel the pain. Which was very likely to happen in her frantic escape.

Hurrying to her room, she reinforced her genjutsu trap, then sat down heavily on the bed with a sigh from deep in her lungs. She carefully peeled off her shorts to get a better look at the wound. She would need to wash and clean it before healing it properly. Heaving another sigh, she numbed the area with chakra, then got into the bathroom, running a towel under the water and cleaning the area of where the projectile had entered.

When it was clear enough, with no more blood clouding her view of the small entry wound or exit wound, she sat back down on the bed, getting some disinfectant from her medkit. If she hadn’t numbed the area the disinfectant would have hurt even more, but it would be difficult to keep the focus needed to heal if she was in constant pain.

After the wound was completely cleaned, she placed her hand over it, a comforting green glow covering her hand, using the chakra to look into her body and examine the wound.    
Luckily the projectile hadn’t clipped the bone, only the artery, leaving it an easier wound to heal, than if she had to worry about bone shards. Healing the artery properly only took her a short time, then she started working on making the muscle grow together to close up the wound. She worked from the center and outwards. She started with the back of her thigh, and when the skin had finished knitting together, she continued with the front. 

The healing didn’t hurt but left a warm tingling feeling in her muscles.

Finally finishing with the wound, she got up and tested her leg. It was still sore, but the pain would pass in a day or so, leaving her without any lasting consequences. It would have been terrible to be caught in this unknown world with a crippling injury and no way back.

Healing the wound and using so much chakra in her rush to get away, not to mention the chakra she used earlier in the day, had left her tired and hungry. Sakura decided that she couldn’t be bothered to go out and track down some food now, so she pulled one of her field rations from her bag and ate it.

There would be no point in going out again now, as it was rapidly approaching evening. She laid down, the past day running through her head. A stray thought hit her that it was good she packed some extra clothes for this mission as her shorts were ruined. She had no way of getting the blood out of them, not to mention the giant hole in them. As quickly as the thought came it left her tired head again.

She really should just go to sleep, but she couldn’t seem to quiet her head, thoughts running amok about what had happened. Both her encounter with the clown and her earlier failure in returning ran through her head. She would need to make a new plan, but couldn’t find the focus to do it now. As she was falling asleep another stray thought drifted through her head; underneath all that makeup the clown was actually kind of handsome, but before she could examine that thought further, she was already asleep.

\---

His henchmen were talking amongst themselves, while unpacking the crates they had spent most of the afternoon moving. The Joker was frustrated. He hadn’t been able to find out ANYTHING about that pink-haired chick. It was like she didn’t exist. He ran his gloved fingers along his scar deep in thought. He didn’t like it. Not at all. She was too powerful to let run around unchecked, especially now that she might be against him. Shooting people didn’t exactly garner positive feelings after all. 

“I heard Johnny say that he heard Rick had tried to rob some pink-haired chick and she almost broke his arm.”

The Joker snapped to attention. Chances of it being  _ her _ were not particularly good. Then again, how many strong, violent, pink-haired chicks ran around in Gotham. It was something to go on, and he was not someone that overlooked seemingly insignificant details.

“Hmm, and where, ah, could one find Rick?” his henchmen stopped talking as soon as he spoke. Silence reigned for a moment, and just as he was about to snap at them, the man that had spoken, overcame his surprise and quickly answered; “He, uhh, usually hangs out at the Crown.” It came out as a question rather than a statement.

“Oh, does he? And if one wanted to find him with certainty?”

“I’ll bring him to you, Boss!”

“Quickly now. I have some, hm, questions for him.”

The man that had offered to find Rick hurried out the door of the hideout. Hopefully, he would be back quickly so he could get his answers. Or else the Joker would have to explain his… displeasure at the delay.


	5. New Plan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sakura makes a new plan. The Joker collects information.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is probably the longest chapter I have ever written!  
> also, i posted a one-shot with the joker's backstory for this story. it's called "My Peace Always Depended on All the Ashes in My Wake"  
> hope you enjoy!!

Joker was impatient, pacing back and forth. It was late in the evening — starting to go into night — and while he didn’t sleep a lot, he still had other things he wanted to do than wait around for these idiots to get themselves together. He had _ plans _ that needed working on, but he couldn’t focus on them until he got more information about this pink-haired chick. Normally his thoughts went in several different directions, but she had managed to capture all his attention. He couldn’t focus on anything but how  _ useful _ she would be to his plans. And how curious he was about her abilities.

Swinging his arm around he relished the pain from the previously dislocated shoulder.

A commotion outside drew his attention away from his thoughts. Annoyance flashed through him, tongue snaking out to run along his scars, as his thoughts turned to violence. If those idiots were getting into trouble again, he would end them all. He didn’t care. There were always other people willing to do the dirty work for a quick buck.  _ Money _ . He didn’t care for it  _ at all _ . But it was necessary to reach his end goals, so he would make use of it.  _ Then burn it all up _ . Eventually, everything would go up in flames and money was no different.

“Please! Please, I’m going as fast as I can!” The voice was unfamiliar, but the words marked who it was. A smile spread across his lips.  _ What was it… Oh, right, Rick _ , he thought. Not that it had been long enough for him to forget the name, but the man was unimportant in the grand scheme of things, just a way to get information.

His henchmen and  _ Rick _ entered the warehouse.  _ Finally _ . He rolled his shoulders and grinned. First impressions were important, and while the man was unimportant, it was always important to uphold his image. He was a symbol, not a person anymore. When Rick saw him he blanched. While the Joker wasn’t very known among the…  _ finer population _ , he was well known in the underground. Known for his cruelty and games.

The Joker relished the expression of fear on Rick’s face. The guy seemingly realized what would happen next. It was obvious his henchmen hadn’t told him exactly  _ who _ wanted to talk with him.

Time to put on a show.

“Please, I haven’t done anything..!” Taking big steps towards where his henchmen were holding Rick, he stopped in front of them clapping his gloved hand against his cheek, roughly, in a mockery of an affectionate gesture.

“A ta ta, now reeelax, pal,” the Joker said, voice pitched in a ‘calming’ tone, “I know you haven’t done anything.” Mockingly. The guy was an obvious squealer — and an A-class wuss — and he _ knew _ a squealer when he saw one. “It’s who you saw that interests me.” The guy looked confused and scared at this, not knowing where he was going with that.

This was good. Probably meant that the chick hadn’t made a big spectacle of herself other than in their encounter making it easier for him to fly under the radar.  _ And more difficult to find her.  _ “Tch,” he ran his tongue along his lower lip in contemplation, the ‘hostage’ reading it as annoyance with him, flinching back in his henchmen’s hold. The Joker grinned.

“Ahh, does, uhm,” here he pretended to think, tapping his finger against his chin in contemplation, “pink hair, green eyes, about ye’ high” a gesture at the chick’s approximate — and very accurate, he never missed a detail — height “make a bell ring?”

Rick had started nodding already after “green eyes” making him look like a puppet on a string, head being jerked about in frantic motions of an uncaring puppet master. He couldn’t help but laugh at his own comparison. It was really what he was, a puppet on the string of an uncaring master, and shortly he was going to cut those strings. But! Not before getting his answers.

The Joker’s laughter had certainly helped with freaking out his guest. An accidental, but welcome addition. The more freaked out the more likely, to tell the truth, and not ask questions with a guy like this. The man’s eyes were flickering about looking for the exit he knew did not exist, body trembling in fear. The Joker cracked his neck, loudly. Trying to release the ever-present tension building up. The other man stayed silent.

“What do you know about her? TELL ME,” his voice had lowered in pitch in impatience and annoyance, making Rick cower in fear. He sneered.

“I… I…” he stammered. Joker grabbed his chin and squeezed.

“Listen here, uh, Rick… I haven’t got all evening and youuuu… Are starting to test my patience,” letting go he took a step back and stared at him, like he could will the answers he wanted from the other man. Rick, probably realizing for real how serious the situation he was in actually was, took a deep breath and started talking.

“I don’t know much about her, just saw her in the Narrows, followed her for a while. She seemed lost like she was looking for something. Seemed like an easy target,” here the Joker grinned, amused at what he heard. She was no ‘easy target’. Oh no. That he had learned the hard way. The man flinched at his grin, knowing from rumors that it brought nothing pleasant with it, but didn’t stop talking, “she, uh,” embarrassment was clear on his face even in this situation, at what had happened. The Joker, of course, already knew that she had ‘bested’ him, but that didn’t stop him enjoying the other man’s embarrassment, “wasn’t... “ skipping over what had happened, but that didn’t matter right now. He needed the information and interrupting would delay this whole deal, and he honestly didn’t have all night. Had _ things  _ that needed doing, “then she asked me some weird questions and left. That’s all I know about her! Honest!”

That was interesting. So Pinky was after information.

“What kind of questions.” Keeping his voice hard, to not let them in on how interested in this he was, it didn’t come out a question.

“Just… some very weird questions. The bitch wanted to know where she was, and what the city is called, and what country she was in. It was very weird. She seemed… distressed by the information. Kept trying to break my arm,” it all came out in a rush. Trying to keep his own skin safe by pleasing the man holding his fate in his hands.

“Hmhmm…” the Joker hummed, this told him a lot but not enough. He would think about that later. Right now, he needed to know more about where to find her. “And where did this happen?” his contemplative tone seemed to put Rick a bit more at ease like he was going to get out of this alive if he just kept the clown happy. No _ t _ gonna happen. He didn’t need some random schmuck knowing he was interested in Pinky. The fewer people that knew about her the better. He would deal with the henchmen that saw her later, right now they were still too useful.

Rick blurted out a street-name. He knew where that was of course. Smack dab in the middle of the Narrows.  _ Well, that made things easier _ . Right in his own playing field. Not that he wouldn’t have been able to find her in the other districts, but it would take longer.

“Ah. Grea _ t _ ,” clicking his tongue on the t, he whipped out a knife, slicing through Rick’s throat on the upswing The comical look of surprise and horror on his face as he choked on his own blood, making the Clown Prince of Crime laugh like a hyena. 

\---

Sakura woke up bright and early again, well-rested, and her thigh aching in a unpleasantly pleasant way, which it would continue to do for a few days.

She had always had a strange relationship with pain. When she was younger, she hated it with a passion and avoided it at all costs. But as she got older, something about it spoke to her. Maybe that wasn’t so strange considering her profession. As a shinobi you would quickly have to get used to pain or you wouldn’t survive for long.

As a medic, she learned how to get rid of it, but the cost of doing so was often worsening the injury if one continued as if uninjured. Not to mention that she didn’t really want to get rid of the pain. It made her feel alive. In a strange way it was what made shinobi human. They might have amazing abilities, but at the end of the day they could get hurt and die. Not as easily as a civilian, but still.

However, lying in bed and thinking about pain wouldn’t get her home. She would need to make a new plan. Her stomach rumbled.  _ First some breakfast _ , she mused. Getting out of bed, showering, and getting dressed took no time at all. She looked at the newspapers spread out over the small desk. It would probably be a good idea to pick up some more. To keep herself updated on the goings of this strange world, and one can’t have too much information after all.

She picked up her pouches, strapped them on, and went out the door, hands finishing the braid in her long wet hair. Taking the stairs two at a time, it didn’t take long to reach the bottom. There was something the guy manning the front desk had called an elevator, that apparently took you to the different floors, but she didn’t really trust the technology of this strange world.

Taking the overhead train, she headed into a different part of the city than she had been in yesterday, both to see something new and to avoid the dangerous man she had met. She considered using a henge, but decided not to, as she had a feeling that if he wanted to find her he would, henge or no henge.

Not to mention that now she knew what those weapons did, she would have a better chance against him. He was still a civilian after all. One well versed in weaponry, but still.

Walking down the street, she came across a bakery and bought something to eat there. She passed a park and sat down on a bench to observe people and think. She hadn’t been able to get through the wall by activating the leftover chakra. It was a long shot anyway. She was really at a loss. She didn’t know any dimensional jutsus, or anything really that could be of help. This really wasn’t her skillset. Trying not to let the failure get to her head, Sakura focused on what she had learned on her little excursion yesterday.

One: There was chakra leftover in the wall from the jutsu, possibly creating a link to her world.

Two: She could interact with that chakra.

Three: She would probably have to apply some sort of outside force to the wall to get the jutsu to reactivate — if that was even possible.

Okay, so she wasn’t completely at a loss. Her head still being fine and being the top kunoichi of her class. Not as smart as Shikamaru, but almost. The thought of people back home hurt her in a flash. She  _ needed _ to get back to them. She wondered if they by now had gotten word to Konoha that she had gone missing. They probably had. How would her parents react? And Ino? What about Naruto and Sasuke? They had grown closer after the end of the war, and things were much better between them than they had ever been. Especially after she had given up on her crush on Sasuke and Naruto his on her.

People had expected her and Sasuke to get together after the war, but neither of them felt that way about the other anymore. She didn’t know if Sasuke ever had felt that way about her.

Slowly eating the bread roll she had bought, her thoughts strayed back to the man. Or well clown, she supposed. She would do her best to avoid him. She could probably recognize his chakra signature if he got too close. There was no mistaking that amount of bloodlust, and she would be a lousy — dead — shinobi if she couldn’t sense it. She wasn’t sure what to do about him. On the one hand she could just kill him if he became too much of a problem, but he was still a civilian and she felt really bad about taking an unnecessary life. She might be a killer, but she was also a healer. It would have to wait and see.

The whole interaction could have gone much better now that she thought about it. She should just have escaped when she had the chance, without harming him, and maybe he wouldn’t have seemed so interested in her. If he hadn’t seen her healing abilities, things would probably be better.

Breaking off a piece of bread, she put it in her mouth, chewing slowly, savoring the taste. Food in this world — even something as simple as bread — tasted different. Not necessarily in a bad way, but it made her miss her home even more.

The best way to deal with the clown would probably be to wait and see what he would do. If he didn’t do anything all the better, but she knew that this wouldn’t be the case.

The bigger problem right now was those weapons. When she passed a police station earlier, she saw an officer coming out from it with one strapped to his hip. She didn’t know what they were called, but they packed a punch and didn’t seem to need any training to use other than learning how to aim. Even then, you didn’t need to be good at aiming them to do damage. She might be able to avoid the projectiles they shoot if she knew it was coming and augmented her speed with chakra, but as a baseline, she wouldn’t be able to avoid them.

This was very troubling. Not to mention that they were everywhere.

Finishing the bread, she got up and threw the paper in the trashcan next to her bench. Thinking about this would get her nowhere without the proper information, so she would need to research. The best way she knew how to do this currently was through newspapers, but she wondered if there was a library somewhere she could gain access to.

Wandering through the park, she passed a newsstand and purchased some of the papers. After breakfast and the newspapers, she was still pretty good on cash. She would look through the new ones when she got back to the hotel.

Deciding that there was no time like the present, Sakura walked up to the first person she saw — a businesswoman fiddling with her phone — and asked her where she could find the library. The woman gave her an irritated look but answered with short, clear directions. 

Sakura not knowing where any of the streets were resolved to get herself a map of the city as it more and more looked like she would be staying here for a while. Still, there were signs, so finding the library shouldn’t be that much of a challenge.

\---

Sakura was wrong. While she was starting to see the system of the way the streets were named, the woman’s directions weren’t in fact  _ clear _ . It took her quite a while to locate the library, but the time wasn’t completely wasted as she had gained a much clearer mental image of the city and found a map. It was meant for tourists, that much was obvious with the highlights on  _ things to see _ , but while that was great and all, it still required a certain amount of cultural understanding she simply did not have.

Entering the library the rush of sounds from outside fell away as the doors shut, and a quiet that she always had connected with libraries fell. This little similarity across dimensions was reassuring to her. Like a haven in the middle of the hell that this world was. ‘Hell’ might be a biiit of an exaggeration, but this world was much busier than she was used to and busy in a different way. The metal boxes on the roads made a vast amount of noise, combined with the rush and sheer amount of people was overwhelming for her, used to something completely different. She pushed it down however. Something that she had a lot of experience with as a kunoichi. It was exhausting, so the quiet of the library was welcome.

Sakura took a deep breath through her nose, blowing it out slowly, quietly through her mouth, not wanting to disturb the quiet. Her shoulders relaxed from their tense position. A weight lifting temporarily from her shoulders. It would be back, but the reprieve was welcome.

Wandering through the rows of shelves, she was once again surprised by the differences to her own world. The shelves were full of books, every single row. Of course, she had seen books before, but scrolls were more common. Books mostly being for fiction works.

Signs on the shelves showed what the books within them contained. She stopped, coming across a sign that read ‘Weaponry’.

Reading through the titles, she browsed the shelf.  _ This will be interesting _ , she thought, pulling out a book called “Modern Weaponry”. It would be the most informative about what kinds of weapons she could expect to encounter, and would definitely have an explanation of the projectile-shooters she had already encountered. It would also be helpful in allowing her to prepare against them. Pulling out a couple of more books that sounded interesting, she found a table and sat down. Piling them on it and pulling “Modern Weaponry” in front of herself. Settling down comfortably in the uncomfortable chair she started reading.

The next many hours passed in the fashion of finishing a book —  _ thank you, speedreading,  _ she thought — and then getting up and finding new ones when she ran out on her table. During this time she learned a lot about this world. There was a book on seemingly every subject in the giant building. Sakura stuck to nonfiction focusing on culture, geography, and technology. There was nothing here about shinobi. Completely establishing that they had no ninja here, however she did find mention of people with special abilities, most having gained them in accidents or being born with them. She really wanted to avoid running into anyone like this.

She did finally find out what the weapons used against her was called.  _ Guns _ . And there were many different types. She was thankful that the one she had been shot with wasn’t a machine gun or full-automatic, as she wasn’t sure she would have been able to heal that kind of damage without using her Creation Rebirth technique — something she wanted to avoid, if at all possible.

Her stomach rumbled, breaking her ruminations. Sakura looked at the slanted windows in the ceiling, noting how orange the light had become, signaling the coming of evening. She was surprised at how quickly time had passed. She decided that it was time to head back to her hotel room for a quick rest, then she would go out and see what the nightlife was like in this city. 

\---

They found her easily enough. She had obviously not had reason to believe that anyone would be trying to track her down. It took some asking around but fear and money were good currency in a place like the Narrows, so it didn’t take much to find out which hotel and room she was staying in. The pink hair and strange clothing being a dead giveaway. They had specific orders to keep to the shadows and just locate her. No snooping around her stuff. They were not to let her know they were there.

So they sat down to wait in the car parked on the opposite street to the hotel. She would return to it at some point and then they were to follow her.

\---

Sakura returned to her room, making good time with the use of her new map. Marking the hotel on the map to make it easier to find in the future, but she wasn’t worried. She was good with directions once she had a sense of the place, and was starting to feel more comfortable with the layout of the city. It was much simpler compared to Konoha’s and other big villages’ she had been in layout. The streets were numbered in a system that made sense, the building of the city obviously planned, compared to Konoha that slowly grew larger.

On her way back she had gotten something light to eat, finally stopping her stomach’s complaints. She really needed to take better care of herself. She could not allow herself to get lost in books that way again, as it could be dangerous to her.

Laying down on the bed with an oomph, she turned unto her side and curled up into a ball. A sudden melancholy hitting her. She missed her friends. It was easier to not think about when she was distracted, but when she gave herself time to stop the thoughts came back. Sakura frowned, not liking the feeling. She would be back to them soon enough. And with that thought in mind, reassuring herself from her bleak reality, she fell asleep.


End file.
